“So, a giant Etherman showed up after the barrier dropped, started messing with the metal circle, did something to it, then picked it up and left?” Caeden asked, summing up the extremely unhelpful information they’d managed to glean from everyone present.

“Sorry, Cae. I just didn’t see another way.” Erik stared at the floor. Caeden had never seen him so genuinely upset. Though his brother’s presence, still bound in dark chains, probably had something to do with his mood.

“I know. I wouldn’t have asked you to kill your brother anyway. I just wish we weren’t in this situation now.” Caeden looked up toward the flagship overhead. He could still feel his Entrance Blade up there, even if he couldn’t access it for some reason. “Then again, we have our enemy making moves we couldn’t predict. Doing things that seem irrelevant to their objective. That’s interesting.”

The last half an hour had been spent trying to understand exactly what he and Lily had walked into when they returned to the arena. No one had died during the Etherman’s ‘attack’. Rather, the humanoid ethertech had ignored all the people present and focused solely on the Entrance Blade.

The parts that most concerned Caeden was that it had managed to change his Entrance Blade enough to interfere with his connection to it. Caeden wasn’t sure how that was possible. Then there was the interference the Etherman had produced. It didn’t block his aura, but it had disrupted his senses enough to stop him from placing another Entrance Blade in the Arena and portal there. That had felt too specific, to deliberate. As if it was an effect created in response to his abilities.

All of this seemed several steps above any other Etherman they’d ever seen. While Caeden wouldn’t call them stupid, he never would have characterized the machine-men as intelligent, either. Rather, they seemed capable within whatever purpose they’d been assigned, but relatively inflexible when it came to anything else.

Caeden couldn’t imagine one somehow being taught how to modify a piece of ethertech it had never interacted with before. And that ignored the fact that the Etherman would have had to assess his Entrance Blade, figure out how it was connected to Caeden, and then change that specific element of the Blade. Caeden could tell that the Entrance Blade was still mostly operational, outside his inability to activate it. That was a precise modification.

“Why was it so large?” Lily asked, standing next to him.

“What do you mean?” Caeden hadn’t thought about that aspect much.

“It couldn’t be to carry the Entrance Blade. The Ethermen we just fought were more than strong enough to carry an Entrance Blade, and they were of average height. So why make one so much bigger? Normally you make something bigger to make it stronger, but this one was sent on a retrieval mission after they ensured that the location’s only real defender was distracted.”

Lily gestured at Erik and his brother.

“I don’t know if they got lucky with who they sent, or Erik’s own luck led to this, but the Revolution managed to get a perfect situation to take an Entrance Blade. I’m guessing they assumed that Erik wouldn’t be able to maintain his barrier while also fighting their agent. If it was any other shrouded, they probably would have been right. So, why did they send an Etherman built for power to do a retrieval mission that they’d removed all combat from?”

“I think you’ve got an idea.” Caeden smirked. Lily was on a roll.

“I don’t think it was an Etherman at all.” Lily smirked right back.

“Why’s that?”

“Because of him,” She pointed at Erik’s brother. And the ethertech armor he was wearing.

“Oh. Ooohh.” Caeden nodded, catching onto her thinking. “That’s clever.”

“They’re clever for thinking of it, or I’m clever for figuring it out?” Lily asked, smiling teasingly.

“They had a good idea, but you’re definitely cleverer.” Caeden pulled her into a side-hug.

“Ok, before you two get turned on by each other’s brains or whatever, care to explain what you’re talking about to the local idiot?” Erik huffed. Caeden was glad he was starting to get his normal attitude back.

“The giant Etherman isn’t an Etherman. It’s a massive suit of armor. Like a bigger version of what your brother is wearing. They must have stuffed one of their ethertechs into it and sent them down to figure out the Entrance Blade. I’m guessing they couldn’t figure out how to turn them all off or whatever their objective is, so they took it back.” Caeden explained.

“If it were me, I’d be trying to figure out how to copy the technology. We’ve shown them pretty definitively the advantages of a more portable and consistent portal network. Plus, they’re obviously already looking into the idea, considering how they got here.” Lily added.

“Yeah,” Caeden frowned. “That’s actually got me worried. According to what Cat said, they made that portal by messing with a CMS site. That’s dangerous stuff, and I don’t want to learn what they’d do trying to combine that tech with my Entrance Blades. After all, the Entrance Blades can pierce the barrier between the Starry Sea and conceptual planes, while the CMS is supposed to maintain the dimensional and planar integrity of our universe. Whatever they could do with the tech to both destroy and create planar barriers can’t be good.”

“Yeah, that’s not something we want to see, ever.” Erik agreed. “I’ve had enough other dimensional crap with your little pocket universe, thanks. Let’s just stick to this universe.”

“And Cat can summon undead from the Necroverse.” Lily added helpfully.

“Right.”

“And Asherta basically has her own pocket dimension with her Horde shroud.”

“Ok, what the heck happened?!” Erik threw his hands up in the air. “When did our team suddenly have more than half its members gain weird dimension-warping powers? This is your fault!” He pointed at Caeden accusingly.

“Actually, it’s the fault of whoever messed with my shroud as an unborn baby, according to the researcher.” Caeden shrugged, completely unapologetic.

“And that’s another thing! I didn’t need to know that some weirdo nerd made our reality as some weird science experiment! That’s a lot to think about, you know. Why can’t everything be simple? My powers are simple!” Erik flopped down on the ground dramatically.

“Erik, you can survive having your entire body atomized.” Lily pointed out.

“So? You can make freakin’ stars, whatever those are! And loverboy there made an entire race of sapient sword people on accident. I just heal and hold stuff together. That’s it.” Erik waved away her words.

“It wasn’t exactly an accident-”

“You know what stars are-”

Both Caeden and lily started defending themselves at the same time.

Erik laughed. “I can’t believe you both think that’s some kind of defense. Yes, Lily, I do know what stars are. I also know that we don’t have them here! They only exist in this universe if you make them! And Caeden, do you really think making an entirely new type of people on purpose is somehow better? You both are ridiculous.”

Caeden and Lily let a moment pass without saying anything as Erik stared up into the sky.

“Ok, are you done venting?” Caeden asked.

Erik let out a massive sigh. “...Yeah.”

“Great, because we need to finish dealing with the Revolution, and even faster than we’d initially planned. We can’t let that flagship leave with my Entrance Blade on board. Honestly, part of me just wants to head up there right now and grab it before they can get anything out of it. Any more than they already have, that is. Messing with dimensional barriers is likely to get the researchers attention, and not in a good way.”

“Why’d he let you get away with it, then?” Erik snorted.

“Two reasons. One, it’s literally a function of my shroud, just like Cat’s. We can only break through his quarantine on the Starry Sea in very specific ways. Two, I have exactly what he was looking for. Blade Forge is the end result of his experiment, the result he made the Starry Sea to see. He’s not going to kill me before he gets every ounce of data out of me that he can.” Caeden explained.

“Well, that must be nice.”

“Do you want to have the explicit attention of an alien extradimensional entity with ambiguous motives and morals? Because I’ll trade you in a heartbeat.”

“Nope, I’m perfectly fine over here with my bad luck and not being at all involved in that mess.” Erik waved his hands emphatically. “You can keep your crap to yourself, thanks.”

“That’s what I thought.” Caeden nodded sharply. Internally, he was smiling. It was pretty obvious that they all needed a moment after the mess this day had turned into. Erik especially couldn’t be doing too well, what with his brother trying to kill him. Caeden had no idea what that was doing to his friend.

“Well, how do you want to do this?” He finally asked, looking at Lily. As much as he wanted to take a nap and have a hot meal, they had problems that needed dealing with.

Actually…

“Hold that thought.” Caeden snapped his fingers, an Entrance Blade appearing next to him, which he stepped through.

{}

“Did he just take a break? Now?” Erik asked Lily, both of them looking at the circle of ethertech filled with the glowing orange of molten metal.

“Yes, I think he did. I also think It’s a great idea.” Lily laughed, following her boyfriend through.

Erik laid his head back on the ground, staring up into the sky at the slowly decreasing number of etherships that still occupied a large portion of the view. “You know what, I think they’re right.”

{}

“Ok, let’s actually get to work.” Caeden sat at an oversized table shaped like a sword. He was holding a thermos of highly caffeinated coffee and wrapped in a comfy plush robe instead of his normal school garb. Lily, Erik, Caeden, and Asherta were all with him in similar situations. The main differences between them were the garb and type of beverage. Everyone was looking similarly relaxed and rejuvenated.

The latter two had been picked up not long after Caeden had decided they all needed a proper break. Each of his teammates had, at some point during the fighting, made a brief stop in the Forge to recharge their shroud, but none of those had been a true break.

Caeden and Lily, after a shower and a nap each, had decided that they were likely about to make their final push to take out the flagship. That meant they needed the whole team. More than that, they needed the whole team in top condition. And that meant a break. Normally that wouldn’t have been possible, but Caeden had his own time-dilated pocket universe, so it wasn’t like they were letting an opportunity slip by.

“I got some numbers.” Lily started, looking at a CV tablet. “The Bladeborne have been clearing upwards more than outwards for the past Starry Sea hour. I’ve been taking an hour here and there to check up on them and make sure it went smoothly. Honestly, they didn’t need anything from me, but I think they’re still a little nervous about acting without oversight.”

Caeden nodded. It made sense, after all. The assault on the Revolution fleet was the first time the Bladeborne had truly taken action outside the Forge. They didn’t want to let him down. But as much as they were his children in a very real sense, they weren’t actual children. Not one of those leading the attack were anything less than capable and intelligent leaders. Caeden couldn’t be more confident or proud of them.

“How close are they to the flagship?”

“Still a fair distance. Once they started pulling down higher ships instead of expanding the scope of their attack, the flagship started launching more of those massive battleships that Noodle originally took out. They’ve stymied most of the progress of the last fifteen minutes or so. The current projections have that stall lasting for several hours unless something changes.” Lily explained.

Caeden sighed. “So, once again they reacted pretty damn fast to deal with the problem. Except this time we haven’t immediately shut them down. How are they reacting?”

“That’s the thing.” Lily looked up from her tablet with a quizzical expression. “They mostly aren’t. Every other time they’ve tried to counter like this, we’ve almost immediately escalated and destroyed their counter. I was expecting them to press the advantage now that we haven’t done that, but so far they’ve just accepted our lack of response and are just stalling.”

“Maybe they’re still planning?” Cat jumped in. “It’s been fifteen minutes. They might still be waiting for our response.”

“Ehh,” Lily wiggled her hand back and forth. “If they’re tracking the fight like we are, they should have expected our response within five minutes, max. We were never slow to respond before.”

“Weak minds. They’re not ready to fight. Don’t believe they can win anymore. Afraid of what we’ll do if they push.” Asherta folded her arms, leaning back in her chair. “Broke them after Caeden beat up their Ethermen.”

“I don’t believe that.” Caeden shook his head. “People that are that mentally defeated wouldn’t order a mission to steal one of my Entrance Blades. That requires a certain level of belief in victory. It doesn’t fit.”

“Actually,” Lily ran a hand through her hair, her expression thoughtful. “She might not be wrong.”

“How so?”

“We know from Kevin, that Etherman we fixed, that there was a man going around doing whatever he wanted in the Revolution, seemingly with impunity.”

“Right, that guy. Hadn’t thought about him in a while.” Caeden nodded.

“Well, we figured that he was essentially the source of their advanced ethertech. What if he, or someone working for him, wanted the Entrance Blade? The Revolution is all about compartmentalization. I wouldn’t be surprised if their ethertech development was held separate from their military operations. Two separate chains of command, two separate reactions to us.” Lily walked them through her thinking.

“That tracks with what we’ve seen, I suppose.” Caeden nodded.

“I think we’re forgetting that we have a way better way to answer these questions.” Cat added, gesturing to a chair against the wall of the room. In it sat Travis, Erik’s little brother, minus his armor. “Well, little brother? Feel like talking now?”